For some reason, Eli couldn’t bring himself to believe that. He wasn’t certain Cordeau was as devoid of feelings for her as she believed. Cordeau had shown a few protective instincts, not just possessive ones. The DEA had quite a long file on the man, dating back to when she was just a child. She’d gone up a tree, a tall one and she’d taken a nasty fall.
Cordeau had been conducting a business meeting with two of his local distributors and he’d launched himself from his chair, sprinting to break her fall. They had a series of photographs and two of them showed his face very clearly. It hadn’t been the face of a man who didn’t care, but Eli wasn’t going to tell her that. Not now, maybe never, and that made him an even bigger bastard. Strangely, both of the distributors had disappeared about two months later, neither body ever found.
“You don’t know that for certain, Cat.”
She shrugged. He caught the front of her shirt in his fists and tugged her closer as he leaned down and brushed a comforting kiss across her mouth.
“I’m going to shift. I can go fast or slow. Up close or far away. You tell me how you want it, Cat, and it’s yours.”
She blinked. He realized she hadn’t expected any concessions from him. Her deep cobalt blue eyes searched his face for a long time as if looking for something. It took a few moments and then she took a deep breath. “Up close and fast. Rafe was across the room from me and shifted very slowly. It looked torturous and so scary. I’ve never been so frightened of anything in my life.”
He frowned and stroked his hand down the side of her face, more to soothe her than because he wanted to feel the softness of her skin – and he really wanted to feel how soft she was. “Why up close and fast?”
Her chin went up. “You said how I wanted it was mine to say.”
He studied her face another minute. “Just say my name,” he reminded her.
Catarina nodded, and Eli shifted. It was not just fast, he shifted with blurring speed. He was so fast she nearly missed it because she blinked. One moment he was a large, intimidating man and the next he was a huge leopard. The head on the male seemed almost as big as she was.
There wasn’t time for panicking, she didn’t even scream, her breathing catching in her lungs and holding there, trapped. Gold eyes locked on her, smoldering, pupils dilated. So gold they were pure fire. Focused on her. Unblinking. Absolutely intelligent. Eli’s eyes. She would know his eyes anywhere.
The leopard was all roped muscle and thick, dark fur, a massive black panther. He looked… powerful. Invincible. Up this close she could see the shadowy rosettes stamped deep in the dark fur. She recognized a very efficient killing machine when she saw it.
She held her breath, hearing the roar of thunder as her blood pulsed in her ears. She felt her heart hammering hard in her chest. Strangely, there wasn’t the terrible fear that still woke her from a dead sleep, the other leopard snarling, rushing her, the eyes intent on her as prey. This leopard was just as deadly, but he was also Eli. She could see evidence of him there in the way his eyes watched her so closely.
Eli always watched her with the same intense stare. The way he looked at her, so focused, as if he could see into her soul, always thrilled and terrified. She felt both emotions right then as well.
Eli’s leopard took a step toward her, not the freeze-frame stalk of a leopard hunting, but a slow, measured step that brought the large cat directly in front of her. The way it positioned itself, it was almost as if it was a sentry, a guardian, seeking to keep her safe. She didn’t understand why this animal, every bit as large and intimidating as Rafe’s leopard, could make her feel so different.
For the first time, once the animal had taken up location in front of her, he broke his stare with her, turning his head and lifting it toward the air. She knew what he was doing, all those hairs, deeply embedded in tissue surrounded by nerve endings transmitted data to his brain. Like a guidance system, the information giving the exact location of vegetation and other obstacles so the leopard could move silently in the dark. The radar system also allowed him to find and identify enemies or prey quite easily.